Safa Bayar
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Safa Bayar

About

I’m Safa Bayar, a versatile Software and Platform Engineer with 6+ years of hands-on experience spanning DevOps, Platform Engineering, Automation Development, Software Engineering, and technical project leadership.

I design and ship production systems end-to-end: from Go and Python application modules, FastAPI services, and LLM-powered agent platforms to the Kubernetes clusters, GitOps pipelines, and multi-cloud infrastructure that run them.

Core Competencies

  • Software Development — Python, Go, Bash, Ruby, C++; FastAPI, Flask, Django; REST/API design; unit and end-to-end testing
  • AI / LLM Engineering — Classical and skill-based agent architectures; LLM-backed automation and maintenance workflows; prompt and tool-use integration
  • Platform & DevOps — Kubernetes (CKA, CKS), Docker, Docker Swarm, OpenShift, Helm, Kustomize, Custom Operators, CRDs
  • GitOps & CI/CD — ArgoCD, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions, Drone, Jenkins, AWX, JFrog Artifactory
  • Infrastructure as Code — Terraform (Associate certified), Ansible, Helm
  • Cloud Platforms — GCP (GKE, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, Cloud Scheduler), Azure, AWS, OpenStack, Equinix, on-premises
  • Observability & Security — Prometheus, Grafana, OPA Gatekeeper, Keycloak, mTLS, HAProxy
  • Data & Messaging — Kafka, Redis, Zookeeper, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB

Professional Experience

Software Automation Developer

Nokia Inc., Ottawa | 2022 – Present

  • Design and maintain LLM-powered classical and skill-based agent platforms, including the application code, deployment pipelines, and long-term operational upkeep of agent services in production.
  • Automate continuous deployment of multiple product lines with ArgoCD and GitOps workflows, standardizing release patterns across teams and reducing manual intervention in rollouts.
  • Lead end-to-end SDLC for automation solutions: system design, implementation, code review, and task distribution across multiple concurrent projects.
  • Develop Go and Python application modules and FastAPI services that expose API-driven automation workflows, significantly boosting operational efficiency and integration across internal tooling.
  • Engineer and operate Kubernetes platforms including custom Operators, CRDs, and Helm charts for scalable deployment and application orchestration.
  • Integrate GKE observability with Prometheus and Grafana, and enforce policy using OPA Gatekeeper.
  • Drive cloud integration and infrastructure provisioning across GCP, Azure, OpenStack, Equinix, and on-premises using Terraform and Ansible.
  • Manage Google Cloud workloads with Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, and Cloud Scheduler, orchestrated through GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
  • Design and operate a Redis, Kafka, and Zookeeper message bus feeding Grafana dashboards and downstream data-processing APIs.
  • Build and maintain a secure, self-sustained Docker environment with HAProxy load balancing, a private artifact registry, and mTLS authentication.
  • Integrate Keycloak-based authentication and identity management for secure access control across cloud and Kubernetes environments.
  • Orchestrate release and testing processes, enhancing Radish BDD frameworks and developing Python unit and end-to-end tests.
  • Configure virtual routers and network topologies using Containerlab for infrastructure simulation and testing.
  • Author detailed technical documentation for automation processes, system architectures, and deployments.

DevOps Developer

KPM Power Inc., Toronto | 2021 – 2022

  • Designed and built a Python Flask debugger web application (GUI and backend) that fully automated customer-facing functions including remote control, data transfer checks, and service restarts.
  • Optimized and expanded Ansible playbooks with modular, reusable roles to streamline infrastructure automation.
  • Built and automated CI/CD pipelines using Drone CI and GitHub Actions for continuous delivery.
  • Installed and configured core infrastructure services: DHCP (ISC DHCP), LDAP (OpenLDAP), DNS (BIND9), AWX on MicroK8s, and VPNs.
  • Built and maintained a Docker ecosystem for MongoDB, MySQL, Eclipse Mosquitto, and Node.js in a Docker Swarm environment.
  • Developed specialized Ansible roles including one for Clevis and LUKS disk encryption.
  • Automated secure password generation with a Ruby-based Diceware generator integrated with OpenLDAP.

DevOps Engineer

Ozgur Yazilim A.S., Turkey | 2019

  • Developed and maintained automated CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins for streamlined code deployment.
  • Administered Git, Ruby on Rails, SonarQube, OpenShift, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Graylog across development and production environments.
  • Built and deployed Docker containers for monolithic applications running under Kubernetes.
  • Automated email server operations for Postfix and Dovecot, including migration to CentOS 7 and PostgreSQL from MySQL.

Certifications

  • Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
  • Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS)
  • HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate (003)

Education

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

York University, Toronto | 2021 – 2023

Coursework: Software Design, Algorithm Analysis, Data Structures, Computer Organization, Logic, Computer Networks, Software Engineering

Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Engineering

Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey | 2016 – 2019

Coursework: Signals and Systems, Embedded Systems, System Programming, Parallel Computing, Data Mining, Computer Architecture, Microprocessors, Automata Theory

Ready to connect? Check out my contact page or reach out at bayarsafa@gmail.com.